Sir Peter Paul Rubens

Salome presented with the head of Saint John the Baptist

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January 26, 03:17 PM GMT

Estimate

25,000,000 - 35,000,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Baroque: Masterpieces from the Fisch Davidson Collection

Sir Peter Paul Rubens

Siegen 1577 - 1640 Antwerp

Salome presented with the head of Saint John the Baptist

oil on oak panel

panel: 37 by 40⅛ in.; 94 by 101.8 cm.

framed: 49¼ by 54 in.; 125.1 by 137.2 cm.

Spanish Royal collection, Alcázar de Madrid, Galeria del Mediodia, recorded between 1666 and 1700 (see note);
Le Camus family (according to a red wax seal on the verso);
Possibly M. de Merval, and his sale, Paris, 9 May 1768 ("Hériodiade à qui des guerriers apportent la tête de St. Jean" [see Rooses 1888]);
Private collector, Montargis, France;
By whom sold, Fontainebleau, Drouot, 14 June 1987, no lot number, (as “Studio of Rubens”);
Where acquired by Charles Bailly;
By whom anonymously sold, New York, Sotheby’s, 30 January 1998, lot 137;
Where acquired by Otto Naumann, Ltd., New York, and Alfred Bader, Milwaukee;
From whom acquired by Steve Wynn, Las Vegas, 1998;
By whom sold with property holdings to MGM Grand, Las Vegas, 2000;
From whom acquired by the present collectors, 2000.

G. Cruzada Villaamil, Rubens, diplomático español, Madrid 1874, pp. 308-309;

M. Rooses, L’Oeuvre de P.P. Rubens, Antwerp 1888, vol. 2, pp. 8-9, cat. no. 240;

G. Vitaletti, Salome nelle leggenda e nell'arte, Rome 1908;

H. Daffner, Salome, ihre Gestalt in Geschichte und Kunst: Dichtung, bildende Kunst, Musik, Munich 1912, pp. 23, 29-30, 111;

A. Pigler, Barockthemen. Eine Auswahl von Verzeichnissen zur Iconographie des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, Budapest 1956, vol. I, p. 474-475;

Y. Bottineau, "L'Alcazar de Madrid et l'inventaire de 1686: Aspects de la cour d'Espagne aux XVIIe siecle," Bulletin Hispanique, 1958, p. 311;

J.S. Held, Rubens, Selected Drawings, with an Introduction and a Critical Catalogue, London 1959, p. 107

L. Burchard and R. d’Hulst, Rubens Drawings, Brussels 1963, pp. 74-75, under cat. no. 42;

J. Müller-Hofstede, “Abraham Janssens,” in Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen (1964), especially pp. 293-295 (where he discusses the lost prototype by Rubens);

J.B. Knipping, Iconography of the Counter Reformation in the Netherlands: Heaven on Earth, Nieuwkoop 1974, vol. I, pp. 223-224;

P.P. Rubens; Paintings, Oil Sketches, Drawings, exhibition catalogue, Antwerp 1977, pp. 292-293, under cat. no. 128 (as lost);

A.M. Logan, “Rubens Exhibitions 1977-78,” in Master Drawings 16 (Winter 1978), p. 443, under cat. no. 36 (referring to the “lost” painting);

E. Hubala, “Triumph der Weibermacht, Bemerkungen zu einer Komposition von Rubens,” in Festschrift Herbert Siebenhuner, Würzburg 1978, pp. 143-164 (iconographic discussion of the “lost” Rubens painting with illustrations of many copies after it);

J.S. Held,

The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens, Princeton 1980, vol. 1, p. 572, under cat. no. 414 (see note);

D. Bodart, Rubens, Milan 1985, p. 156;

J.S. Held, Rubens, Selected Drawings, with an Introduction and a Critical Catalogue, rev. ed., New York 1986, p. 94;

S.N. Orso, Philip IV and the Decoration of the Alcazar of Madrid, Princeton 1986, p. 147;

M. Jaffé, Rubens, Catalogo completo, Milan 1989, p. 170, cat. no. 115, reproduced (dated 1609-1610);

D. Bodart (ed.), Pietro Paolo Rubens (1577– 640), exhibition catalogue, Padua 1990, p. 72, under cat. no. 17;

P. Sutton and M. Wieseman, Old Master Paintings, New York 1999, pp. 80-85, no. 27;

Historians of Netherlandish Art Newsletter and Review of Books, vol. 16, no. 1, 1999, p. 10, reproduced fig. 7;

P. Sutton, in The Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art: European and American Masters, L. Lumpkin (ed.), Las Vegas 1999, pp. 21-24, reproduced;

D. Jaffe and A. Bradley, Rubens: The Massacre of the Innocents, exhibition catalogue, London 2003, pp. 3, 13-14, reproduced fig. 24;

A.M. Logan and M. Plomp, Peter Paul Rubens: The Drawings, exhibition catalogue, New York 2005, pp. 121-122, under cat. no. 26, reproduced fig. 66;

D. Jaffé and E. McGrath, Rubens: A Master in the Making, exhibition catalogue, London 2005, p. 171, cat. no. 80, reproduced in color p. 173 and in detail p. 172 (as dated 1608-9);

D. Jaffé, Massacre of the Innocents, 2009, pp. 38, reproduced p. 40, fig. 15;

K. Bulckens, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard. Part V (2), The Ministry of Christ, London & Turnhout 2017, pp. 5962, no. 5, reproduced fig. 30;

G.P. Streete, The Salome Project: Salome and Her Afterlives, Eugene 2018, pp. 42 and 59.